The Wolfpack men's basketball team will host 4-4 Lipscomb at 2 p.m. at the RBC Center. Following the game, the fans can head over to Carter-Finley Stadium to watch the football team practice from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in preparation to face Rutgers in the Papajohns.com Bowl on Dec. 29 in Birmingham, Ala.

NC State (6-1) is coming off an emotional 87-76 victory against East Carolina on Wednesday, thanks to the inside trio of senior center Ben McCauley, redshirt junior power forward Brandon Costner and sophomore center Tracy Smith, who combined for 54 points.

Lipscomb has played a team yet from a power conference, with wins over Oakland City, Southeastern Louisiana, North Florida and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. The Bisons play at NC State, at Elon on Monday and then at Indiana on Dec. 28, the next three games.

Lipscomb will also have the youngest starting lineup the Wolfpack have faced this year with five sophomores.

Sophomore center Adnan Hodzic, a former prep teammate of Eric Gordon of the Los Angeles Clippers at Indianapolis (Ind.) North Central High, is the top returning scorer (8.9 points per game), and is averaging 10.4 points and 6.2 rebounds for the well-balanced Bisons. He is averaging 13.8 points and 8.3 rebounds in his last six games with a season-high 21 points against Tennessee Tech.

Hodzic and his family moved during the Bosnian War during middle school, and he speaks five languages.

Coach: Scott Sanderson, 13th season overall (234-154) and 10th season at Lipscomb (150-129)

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Notes

Lipscomb: Sanderson is the son of former Alabama coach Wimp Sanderson, and previously coached under Terry Holland at Virginia, Tim Floyd at New Orleans, Bill Foster at South Carolina and Joe Harrington at Colorado Lipscomb has been struck by injuries with freshman center Rob Murphy getting injured and senior power forward Thomas Pfaff was hurt in practice early this month Oden replaced senior guard Michael Lusk, a three-year starter, in the lineup in their last game, and Lusk responded with 14 points off the bench in the 70-47 win over Southern Illinois-Edwardsville on Dec. 9. Lusk also had 15 points vs. Southeastern Louisiana on Nov. 20. Oden scored nine, and is coming back after missing time last year with a broken hand Brown and Teller played with the Reach USA team that competed in Turkey last summer Freshman Brian Wright, a 6-6 small forward, is the younger brother of former UNC player Brandan Wright, who now plays for the Golden State Warriors.

NC State: Fells has missed the last two games due to a deep bruise near his ankle and will be a game-time decision against Lipscomb. The injury, which occurred in the second half against Davision on Dec. 6, had a string of 44 consecutive starts snapped. Redshirt senior Simon Harris, a former starter at Elon, has moved into the lineup the last two games for his first career starts as a NC State player Costner had his best game since his redshirt freshman season when he scored 24 points and grabbed 17 rebounds against East Carolina on Dec. 17. He is 34 points away from reach 1,000 for his NC State career NCSU leads the ACC in scoring defense (58.4), and is second in field-goal percentage defense (.352) and three-point field goal percentage defense (.272). The Wolfapck are also second in assist/turnover ration (1.3) Walk-on Kevin Holmes, a 5-11 freshman point guard from Durham (N.C.) Jordan High, has been added to the roster.